


Curtashi's Second Anniversary Week fics

by Curtashiism



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Curtash's second anniversary, Curtashi's cotton anniversary event, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, Light Angst, M/M, Mentioned death of original characters in chapter 3, Original Character Death(s), Prompt Fill, Talk of death in chapter 3, Weddings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27975990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curtashiism/pseuds/Curtashiism
Summary: Fills for the Curtashi's Cotton Anniversary event, which celebrates their second anniversary (since the second anniversary is often called the "cotton anniversary" in western tradition).Day 1- Wedding; Curtis and Shiro's pre-wedding nerves are soothed by their Best People.Day 2- Cake; Shiro's attempt to make an anniversary cake goes as well as you would expect, but Curtis doesn't mind.Day 3- Remembrance; Shiro and Curtis remember those they've lost.Day 4- Vows; Curtis and Shiro's relationship has always been built on promises.Day 5- Rings; More than bands of metal, their rings represent all the devotion they have for each other.
Relationships: Curtis & Veronica, Curtis/Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21
Collections: Curtashi's Cotton Anniversary





	1. Day 1- wedding

**Author's Note:**

> Here are my fills for this event! I hope you enjoy it, and if you feel inspired, head on over to the collection and post something, too!

Shiro couldn’t stop fidgeting. Couldn’t stop adjusting his bow tie, which was already perfectly centered anyway. He finally untied it and then dashed it to the ground, growling in frustration. “This is stupid! I can’t do this!”

Shiro’s best man bent over and picked up the discarded tie with a patience Shiro would never have expected from him when they had first met ten years ago. He smoothed out the wrinkles in the silk with a calm hand, looking at Shiro. “Why? Why can’t you do this, Shiro?"

“Because I just-” Shiro waved his arms in a helpless gesture. “I can’t marry him, Keith! Curtis doesn’t know what he’s getting into with me. He thinks too highly of me.” Shiro ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “He thinks these things about me now, but give it a few years living with me full time and he’ll see the truth and run off. And I won’t blame him!” Shiro sank into a nearby chair. “Why am I doing this to myself? To him? I know it won’t last-”

“Shiro.” Keith’s voice was firm, but gentle. “You’ve been with Curtis for five years now. You’ve known him since you were a senior cadet. Do you really think he doesn’t know you? He knows all the good and bad things about you and he loves you because of them. Not… not because he thinks you’re something you’re not. He knows exactly who you are, just like me and the others do.” He took in a breath. “He loves you, Shiro. I don’t think I could trust anyone else to make you happy, except maybe Adam.”

The words hit him like a punch to a gut. Shiro got very, very quiet, looking down into his lap as he turned his hands over. “Keith,” he murmured sympathetically. “You still miss him, huh?”

“Of course I do. And I know you do too. But that’s why-” Keith paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. “That’s why I know this is right. I know Curtis will make you happy and you _deserve_ that, Shiro, more than anyone in the universe.”

Shiro swallowed. “What if I don’t make _him_ happy?”

“You will, just by being with him. There’s no one else he would ever want.” It was the truth; Shiro knew that, but it was still hard for him to believe.

“What if he gets mad that I can’t cook?” He was looking for a reason to worry now. His therapist had tried to work with him on that. He couldn’t help it; when he got anxious his brain had a never-ending list of reasons he should panic, and now that he didn’t have to be a calm, collected leader for the Paladins anymore, he didn’t simply push it all to the side like he once had, letting himself worry more outwardly. “What if I start snoring when I get older and he kicks me out of the bed? What if-”

“Shiro, you’re rambling.” The gentle rebuke was all too familiar to Shiro, having been on the giving end so many times. “Remember what Sam always told us?” That, too, was familiar. Shiro gave an affirming nod, and Keith smiled. “Well, right now, this is your chance to do something great. You can’t miss it because you’re scared.”

Shiro nodded. Keith was right, of course. He loved Curtis, Curtis loved him, and they’d already come so far, worked through so much together- from Galra-related trauma to regular relationship issues to everything in between. They had seen each other in their darkest, most vulnerable moments and in their happiest ones.

And Shiro still wanted to marry Curtis, and Curtis still wanted to marry him.

Keith was smiling as he said, “come on. No more moping on your special day, okay? You’re gonna get married and it’s gonna be awesome. You’re going to say a bunch of boring stuff about commitment, kiss your husband and then everyone’s going to cheer.”

And that was everything Shiro wanted.

“Okay,” he said, and took his tie from Keith’s hand, sliding it under his collar again. “Let’s do this.”

Keith clapped a hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “Let’s go get you married, Shiro.”

“Okay,” Shiro said, letting out one last shaky breath before composing himself. “Let’s go.”

And without another word, the pair headed outside.

—

Curtis looked over to Veronica, nervously tapping one foot on the ground as he sat in his own chair. “I keep waiting for him to call the whole thing off,” he admitted.

“Why would he do that, Curt?” Veronica tied the laces on her leather shoes.

“You know why. He’s a hero, he saved the entire universe, and I’m… me.” He heaved a sigh. “Just boring me.”

“One, you’re not boring. Two, if you not being a Paladin or something was an issue for him, it would have been one years ago,” Veronica said. “He doesn’t expect a savior. He wants a good, caring partner who understands him and loves him, warts and all, and who he can love the same way. That’s you, Curt. Besides-” she started on her other shoe- “I seem to remember you helping him save the universe anyway. We all did when we were on the Atlas.”

“That’s not the same,” Curtis argued, ignoring the rest of what Veronica had pointed out. “There were hundreds of us, that’s a lot less scary than being a team of five alone against the entire Galra Empire.”

“It’s not about how scary it is. The fact is, you put your life on the line to save people, too. And I repeat, Shiro is the last person who would expect his partner to be some kind of superhero. He just wants you, Curt. No more, no less,” Veronica said firmly. “And if you don’t see that, I don’t know what to tell you. He’s been head over heels for you for years.”

Curtis sighed. He knew that, knew Shiro was crazy about him, and he’d been the same way even _longer_ than Shiro had. But the same thing that had required Shiro to be the one to ask him out instead of the other way around was the same thing making Curtis so nervous today.

“What would you say,” Veronica began, coming over to Curtis to adjust his crooked jacket, “if I told you Shiro was saying the same things as you are right now?”

“First I’d ask why you and Keith are gossiping about the grooms less than an hour before their wedding,” Curtis said dryly. “Then I’d ask if he was okay and if he needed anyth- you’re about to tell me that’s exactly why he loves me, because I’m compassionate and I always put his happiness first and… right.” He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Point taken.”

“You see? Now come on, I’ve been waiting for this day since you first told me you had a crush on Shiro to begin with,” Veronica said, looping her arm through his elbow. “You’re getting _married_.”

“Since I told you I- Veronica, that was like ten years ago,” Curtis protested.

Veronica smirked playfully at him. “Oh, I know.”

Letting out an exaggerated groan, Curtis told her, “you’re hopeless, you know that? Fine, you win.” He was beaming, though, and leaned over to give her a tight hug. “Thank you for being my Best Maid, Veronica.”

“Like it could have been anyone else.” Veronica laughed and hugged him back. “Come on, as much as I’d _love_ a nice long cuddle session before you get hitched, I don’t think we have time.” She stood and pulled him up with both hands before heading to the door. “Your husband awaits. Let’s go outside.”

“He’s not my husband yet.” Curtis looked himself over in the mirror once, decided he was satisfied with his appearance, and followed after Veronica.

He was getting _married._ He was getting married, and he was as ecstatic as he could possibly be, and in less than ten minutes he would see that Shiro was just as overjoyed as he was.

It was time for them to enjoy their happy day.


	2. Cake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 2- Cake. Hope you guys like this! Thanks for the response to chapter 1!!

The smell of burning chocolate greeted Curtis as he walked downstairs, and he wrinkled his nose as he walked into the kitchen, knowing before he even got there what the source was.

“Hey, baby. Happy anniversary,” Shiro said, a sheepish expression on his face as he held a bowl of… _something_ away from himself. It was presumably supposed to be some kind of batter if the cake mix to his side was any indication, but it looked like the sort of nightmarish goop that might go in a swamp in a terrifying sci-fi movie.

“Happy anniversary. Do I even want to know?” Curtis inclined his head towards the stove.

“I was trying to make cake… trying being the keyword here…” Shiro heaved a sigh and poked the unsalvageable mixture with a fork. “I saw Hunk do something with melted chocolate and thought, well.” He held up a pan of charred black stuff, the source of the disgusting burning smell that had woken Curtis up. “Thought I could do it, but I was wrong, as usual. Feel free to laugh.”

Blinking in shock, Curtis said, “Of course I’m not going to laugh at you! Why would I laugh when you did something so, well… sweet, if you’ll excuse the pun?”

“Why not? I burned a bunch of crap and made a giant mess,” Shiro grumbled, grabbing a roll of paper towels and bringing it to the stove.

“It is a mess, but I don’t care, you still tried to make a cake for our anniversary. And that’s really nice and… thank you, Takashi.” Curtis beamed and pulled Shiro in for a soft kiss. “I couldn’t be happier… I have the best husband on Earth.”

Shiro couldn’t seem to come up with a reply to that, just opened his mouth a few times before saying, “no, I definitely have the best husband.”

Curtis laughed and kissed Shiro again. “Come on. I’ll help you clean and then we’ll see if I can take your mind off this.”

“Don’t have to twist my arm.” Shiro kissed him back, slow and deep. “I love you. Happy anniversary.”

“I love you too, sweetheart. Happy anniversary.” Curtis hugged Shiro tightly before the pair went back to work on cleaning the mess in the kitchen.


	3. Remembrance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is angsty, but I hope the Curtis backstory makes up for it. Hope you enjoy!

Curtis and Shiro liked to keep things light on their anniversary day, focus on the positives in their lives. And after all Shiro had been though, no one begrudged them that; they had the rest of the year for solemnity and mourning, and even that pain was fading year by year. They deserved at least one day that could be free from that, reserved instead for celebrating the good things they’d found. But the next day, they decided, they would always set aside for remembrance.

The day after their first anniversary was when they’d started that little tradition. They’d sat down together, sharing pictures of important people from their pasts, people they wished could have joined them at the wedding and shared their joy. And they did it again this year, but explaining more than they ever had.

Adam was the first on Shiro’s list, of course, but there were others, not all of whom he had shared with Curtis before besides quick mentions. Allura, whose loss had torn all the Paladins apart. His grandfather, Hikaru, who had raised Shiro on his own. Shiro’s parents, who had died so early that Shiro remembered nothing of them but Hikaru’s stories, but who he still missed very much. Ulaz and the other war heroes gone too soon.

Curtis had a list of his own, but was always much quieter about it than Shiro. He tended to say little more about his lost loved ones than “I miss them,” for reasons Shiro couldn’t quite nail down. Sometimes he thought it was just the weight of Curtis’s own grief, that Curtis hadn’t processed it as much as Shiro had and just truly wasn’t ready to talk about it, even after all these years. Other times Shiro thought it was a misguided attempt to protect him, to not let him see just how much Curtis was hurting. Increasingly, though, Shiro thought it was part of a larger pattern Curtis had, where he refused to let Shiro see him hurt because he knew that would lead to Shiro taking care of him, and Curtis didn’t think he had suffered enough to deserve that.

Either way, Curtis very rarely talked about the things _he_ had been through, and it worried Shiro. Days like this were the only times Curtis would open up, and Shiro made a point of listening, of offering all the love and support he could, in the hopes that maybe it would encourage Curtis to open up more in the future. It never seemed help, though, because Curtis already knew he had Shiro’s support. It was something else causing his silence.

Curtis’s list of lost loved ones was much longer than Shiro’s. His family had been a big and close one. Had been, past tense. The only ones left now were Curtis and a few very distant cousins two and three times removed.

Shiro had wanted to throw up when he heard that, even more so when he learned that the last round of funerals had happened just before the Atlas’s launch date. Records had been sparse during the invasion and it was only after Earth was liberated that they had been able to identify the dead, and slowly comb the list of missing persons to find either those who were still alive in the work camps, and those who hadn’t made it. The year after the invasion had seen an almost nonstop wave of funerals and memorials for those just discovered to be dead as well as those who had been known to be all along, but just hadn’t been able to be put to rest due to the invasion.

Curtis’s family had been one such group of formerly-missing people. For their ceremonies Curtis had flown to Sri Lanka for a week, and then, after the last one, had immediately driven to Colombo’s airport and flown to the Galaxy Garrison base in Arizona. Immediately after arriving he had attended Shiro’s briefing, then retreated for his own dorm to take a long nap. Or he would have, at least, if he had not seen Shiro on his own and offered the captain his companionship instead, finding compassion in himself even when he was so numb with grief.

And Shiro had had no idea what he’d been going through during their first meaningful conversation until they were _engaged._

Curtis’s soft voice brought Shiro out of his thoughts.

“They would have loved you,” Curtis was saying wistfully, a thumb gliding over a family photo Shiro had never seen before.

He could tell who Curtis’s parents were based on the ages, and could see a half dozen of Curtis’s brothers and sisters. Shiro didn’t know when during the invasion they had died, but he could only assume it had either been in the first wave, or in the work camps. He didn’t know what possibility was worse.

Curtis pointed out each sibling to Shiro, tearfully telling him their names and ages. Curtis had been the oldest child, and in this picture he was fifteen and holding his youngest sister, an infant at the time.

Shiro did the math in his head. She couldn’t have been older than eight when the invasion started. The thought made him feel even more nauseous.

No wonder Curtis didn’t talk about this very often. Shiro knew he wouldn’t be able to.

“She was practically my shadow,” Curtis said glumly as he set the picture back on their coffee table. “She cried when I left for the Garrison. Called me every day.” He wasn’t crying, but Shiro could see how close he was, could see how wet his eyes were. “They all did. They were so surprised that I decided on space of all things.”

Shiro had heard the story before. Curtis ending up at the Garrison had been something of... He didn’t want to say an accident, because that made it sound like he was never meant to be there. It was more like a chance, a twist of fate. Curtis had never felt drawn to space and adventure like Shiro had. His feelings on going to space had been mild, fleeting curiosity at best.

It had been an older teacher of Curtis’s who pushed him. He’d seen Curtis’s fascination with not only language, but with the various forms of technology similar to the ones used at the Garrison, and had contacted a recruiter friend of his at the Garrison. The friend had been unimpressed, had said that Curtis could be a great communications officer, but the Garrison already had plenty of those. They were looking for good, solid pilots, and Curtis could barely handle a bicycle, let alone spacecraft.

And Curtis, who hadn’t felt any attachment to the idea of the Galaxy Garrison before, now had a fire lit inside him now that he could see how close he was to being turned down. He’d prove it, he told the recruiter. He’d prove he could be more than the recruiter thought possible.

First he showed his fluency in Tamil, English, and French- all of which he’d been raised speaking- and then thrown in other languages. Spanish, Hebrew, passable German and Japanese, and even a bit of Russian. Not just spoken, but written forms too.

The recruiter was close to relenting based on that alone, but then Curtis had shown him one more thing- his navigational skills, shown on both Earth-based and space systems. Sure, Curtis had said, the Garrison had a lot of communications officers, but how many could be cross-trained as nav techs? The Garrison had boasted about being less than a decade away from managing intergalactic travel, and even their most advanced ships had limited resources. Wouldn’t it help to save one person’s body-and-ration weight by having the nav tech and comms officer be the same person?

And just like that, Curtis had become the Galaxy Garrison’s newest recruit, scheduled to start as a junior cadet the next fall- to the utter shock of his family, who had never expected Curtis to be drawn away from his homeland, let alone off the _planet_.

Shiro had felt a sense of pride hearing the story for the first time. It spoke to Curtis’s resilience and determination, and it made Shiro so grateful that Curtis had fought so hard for something he didn’t even have that great an attachment to yet. Not only had Curtis been an invaluable member of the Atlas bridge crew, one who had undoubtedly helped save their reality, but Shiro couldn’t imagine his life without his husband in it.

He wished that old teacher of Curtis’s was still around so Shiro could thank him. But the man was just another name on the list of people Shiro and Curtis wished could be there with them to celebrate.

Curtis rested his head on Shiro’s shoulder with a miserable-sounding little sigh that tore at Shiro’s heart. “I miss them,” he said, like he always did, those three little words being the closest he would come to revealing the true depths of his emotions.

“I know.” Shiro rubbed his upper arm soothingly. “They’d be proud of you, I hope you know that. They’d be so happy to see all you’ve done.”

“Your family would be proud of you, too,” Curtis said, and though Shiro knew he was being absolutely genuine, something about it bothered Shiro, not in the sense of making him irritated but in the sense of making him worried. Curtis always did that, always felt like if Shiro said something nice or comforting to him, that he had to do something equal for Shiro. At first he had thought it was sweet, until he started realizing it was a pattern, that there were hangups Curtis had about allowing himself to be taken care of. One of the only ways Curtis would let Shiro do anything for him, even just saying something nice, was if he did something equal or better.

Shiro let out a sigh of his own. Curtis would tell him whole truth one day, he hoped, as soon as Curtis learned he didn’t have to suffer as badly as Shiro had to have a right to hurt and be vulnerable. He loved Curtis and wanted him to be happy, the same as Curtis wanted for him. It was why they’d gotten married two years and one day ago, and he hoped that by this time next year, when they had their annual, two-person day of remembrance, that he would be better equipped to tend Curtis’s freshly-reopened wounds the way Curtis always did for him.

Shiro pulled Curtis closer, wrapping both arms around him. “We’ll be okay,” he whispered into the top of Curtis’s head. “I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some notes on my thought processes for writing this:
> 
> When I decided on my headcanon for Curtis's backstory, I tried to work backwards from Shiro; in other words, what kind of person would Shiro fall in love with? And my answer was: someone strong, who can take care of Shiro during his dark moments- but someone who is vulnerable at times, too. Shiro couldn't feel safe to bare his soul to someone who didn't have their own tragedies and traumas, because that would make Shiro feel too "weak." Therefore, I decided Curtis must have something painful in his past, too, that he and Shiro can bond and connect over, which is the root of this fic.
> 
> I also decided to contrast parts of Curtis's backstory with Shiro's. Shiro ended up at the Garrison because he always knew that was his destiny. Curtis ended up there entirely by chance- he didn't even know what he wanted to do with his life at that point (and that's okay!) He didn't have Shiro's destiny of changing the entire universe, but he still proved important in his own way, and not just as Shiro's partner and confidant.
> 
> As for Curtis's hangups around being taken care of or showing when he's hurting? Shiro is right, in part, that it's feeling like he hasn't suffered "enough" to have "earned" the right to hurt. But there's more to it than that, which I plan to explore in future fics of mine. Long story short- the invasion was not kind to Curtis, even worse than this oneshot shows, and he has awful survivor's guilt and undiagnosed, unresolved PTSD from it all.
> 
> This will all be explored in future fics of mine, and it's not necessary to know all of this for this oneshot, but I thought I'd include this as trivia/background stuff in case anyone was curious after reading. Basically, I'm giving Curtis the depth and backstory the writers should have!


	4. Vows

Curtis and Shiro’s relationship had always been full of vows, even in the days of it being a friendship.

“I’m so sorry about you and Adam… I promise I’ll buy you a drink when you get back from Kerberos, okay?” Curtis had said one day a week before the fateful launch.

“You’re entering the wrestling competition? I might not be able to get away from the MFEs to see the first round, but I promise I’ll be there,” Curtis had said before Clear Day.

“I promise I don’t blame you for what happened. Not to Adam, not to anyone,” Shiro had told Curtis late one night, seeing him alone with tears in his eyes.

“We’ll go the the memorial wall when we get back home,” Shiro had said another time, when they were both caught in their grief.

And other vows were made repeatedly. Shiro would jolt awake from a nightmare, only to be greeted by a soft, whispered, “I promise no one will hurt you again.”

Sometimes Curtis would ask Shiro if he was sure he didn’t want someone else, and be promised, “there’s no one I want but you.”

An entire relationship built on kept promises, on caring for each other. It was cozy and comfortable and perfect, and it felt only natural when it led to them standing outside, surrounded by their friends. It only felt natural when they softly repeated their promises to each other to care for each other forever, to never stop feeling the same love they’d felt for so long already. They’d already made those vows to each other so many times, phrased in different ways.


	5. Rings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is yet another short one, and that I fell behind on these. I will hopefully finish tomorrow or the next day. But since I'm the only one doing this I doubt anyone will mind anyway. Hope you enjoy!

The first few months of being married brought Shiro and Curtis an almost infinite list of small pleasures to enjoy.

Being referred to as “Takashi and Curtis Shirogane” was at the top of the list. It brought a smile to their faces every time they heard it, and they couldn’t imagine that feeling of jubilation ever fading.

Talking about each other to their friends or coworkers and saying “my husband” was another source of joy. Just speaking the word in casual conversation was enough to bring the memories of their wedding day back, faces breaking into soft smiles.

One of their favorites was their rings. Looking down and seeing the simple bands of gold on their fingers, reaching out to hold hands and letting them clink together, setting their bands down as they got ready for bed.

It reminds them of their wedding day, of course, but also of so many days before that. It reminds them of the day Shiro had proposed while showing Curtis around the Tokyo neighborhood he’d grown up in. It reminds them of their first date, their first meeting. It reminds them of their friends who supported them every step along the way.

It reminds them that even with all the people they’ve lost, they are still surrounded by family. It reminds them that they’re _each other’s_ family, and they’ll never alone again as long as they’re together.

The rings remind them of their love and devotion, of the family they’ve made together, the family they will add to one day when the time is right. It reminds them of all they’ve conquered and all they will continue to overcome as they work towards brighter days together.

The rings remind them of how much emotion can be held in short phrases, phrases like “I love you” or “I do” or “always.” The rings remind them of how much devotion they hold for each other.

They couldn’t be more perfect.


End file.
